Worst mass extinctions may have been caused by rising mountains

THE birth of a mountain range in what is now South Africa may have helped to drive one of the most severe mass extinctions in Earth’s history.

The Permian extinction struck about 252 million years ago. It is traditionally thought to have wiped out at least 80 per cent of species in the sea and on land. Massive volcanic eruptions probably played a major role.

But in the past five years, we have discovered that another mass extinction happened not long before, roughly 260 …

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